STUDIO4°C and director Ayumu Watanabe’s anime project, Children of the Sea, will be available digitally, as a Blu-ray + DVD combo pack and on DVD 1 September from GKids and Shout! Factory. A beautiful adaptation of the prize-winning manga, Children of the Sea features a score from legendary composer and long-time Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro).
All editions of the home release will include a number of bonus features, including an interview with Watanabe and CGI director Kenichiro Akimoto, an interview with Hisaishi, a behind-the-scenes featurette, animatic sequences and more. Children of the Sea is scheduled for a nationwide theatrical release in select cinemas via Fathom Events on 11 and 12 August, in subtitled and English dubbed versions, with more details to be revealed soon.
When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad worked. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora, who were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. As the kids get caught up in the mystery behind the sudden worldwide disappearance of the ocean’s fish, they uncover cosmic connections that will change them forever.
Children of the Sea opened in Japan in June 2019 and ranked at #5 in its opening weekend. The anime film earned a cumulative total of 316,860,800 yen (about US$2.95 million) as of last June.
The film screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2019 in the festival’s new Contrechamp category. It also screened in competition for The Ottawa International Animation Festival’s (OIAF) Grand Prize for Features award in September. Children of the Sea won the Grand Prize in the 23rd Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in March.